W.A.S.P. 30 Years Of Thunder - Part Eight AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH So we were just starting the 2nd album, “The Last Command” and as we were cutting the tracks we heard from our publicist that something was happening in Washington D. C. concerning the single “Animal F – Like a Beast”. There was an organization being put together – supposedly – to advise parents as to what the kids were listening to. We found later they were called the PMRC or, the Parents Music Resource Center. They were trying to impose a ratings system on records that would be similar to the way ratings are done on movies. At first, we honestly had no problem with the idea of a ratings system, but as time wore on, we started to hear rumors about who would be making those decisions and what the criteria would be in making those decisions. I assumed it would be a sort of self imposed system that the labels themselves would oversee. Again, similar to the way movies are rated. As we got closer to finishing the album the real truth started coming out….WRONG!!! This PMRC bunch, later known as the “Washington Wives” was being lead by then Senator Al Gore’s wife Tipper Gore, and Secretary of State James Baker’s wife Susan Baker. When I was a kid my mother used to have an expression: “Who died and left you the boss”? I start asking myself that same question. Who did these folks think they were? Who or what qualified them to pass judgment on the entire Music Industry in America? Apparently, they were electing themselves!! All along being helped by the powerful husbands they had behind them. Husbands with their eyes fixed on more than just being a Senator…a lot more!! As we finished the album an invitation came to me from Washington D. C. to attend a Senate Hearing on the “problem of obscene lyrics in music” with W.A.S.P. and our “Animal” single being on a targeted list called “The Filthy Fifteen”. I was being invited to more or less defend myself in front of the Congress of the United States. All because of something I said. In the U. S. the very first Amendment of the Constitution of the United States guarantees “Freedom of Speech”. I would later see pictures of Senators holding up the “Animal” cover. It was surreal, Senators holding up a photo of my crotch in front of the United States Congress!! I just couldn’t believe it!! About 2 days before I was supposed to go to Washington, Rod and I sat down with our publicist, Mike Jensen and talked it over. Mike said he was “concerned that something about the whole Washington thing just didn’t feel right”. So we made the decision that I would not attend those Senate Hearings. I was scheduled to go to New York a couple of days later to attend the “New Music Seminar” which was one of the biggest music conventions in the world. There would be worldwide press there so I’d be able to address the PMRC issue on my own terms without literally being “on trial”. At the Senate Hearings the music industry was being represented by Frank Zappa, country music star John Denver and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider. After the Hearings took place, I went to New York where I met with Frank (Zappa) and discussed what took place there. Frank had seen this before because he had dealt with censorship in the 1960’s. He told me that I really didn’t miss much. He called it a “dog and pony show”. That’s an American expression that means something was just for show. In other words, a big joke that’s only designed to impress people that don’t really know what’s going on. So, were those Hearings just a big joke or was there something more sinister going on behind them? Several weeks went by. We were on tour with Kiss at the time and I had an interview with a local magazine in one of the places we played. The journalist had a tape that she played me. On it was Tipper Gore and Susan Baker talking about what their real motivation was. It had nothing to do with rating records. Their words were shocking because it was about creating political profile for themselves. It became abundantly clear later that Al Gore was using the PMRC the same way Richard Nixon used his communist witch hunts in the 1950’s to create profile for himself, to run for President of the United States. Al Gore would later run for President…. and LOSE!!! All of this was making W.A.S.P. a household word in the U.S., meaning everyone knew who we were. We were on the cover of magazine after magazine and our profile was getting out of control. Funny, the PMRC were trying to create a larger profile for themselves and inadvertently made it happen for us. It was unbelievable; we couldn’t turn on the TV and not hear somebody talking about us. Day after day this was going on. At first we were having a blast with all the attention and really thought it was going to sell a lot more records. But it didn’t. Did they make us a household word? Yes, but the problem was, all the kids already knew who we were. It didn’t help us that now people’s grandmothers now knew who W.A.S.P. was. But that’s why they went after us in the first place. For the PMRC, what better way for them to get attention than to go after an attention getter. But there were some serious down sides. After about a year, little by little, things started to get ugly. All the massive publicity started to bring out the “crazies”. A lot of folks started thinking that the world might be a better place if W.A.S.P. were not in it. Over the next 2 years I got shot at twice, 100’s and 100’s of death threats. Once, one of my cars was seriously tampered with. I had just got on the Hollywood freeway and the left front wheel of the Jaguar XKE I was driving came off. I had just gotten up to 55 MPH when the wheel came off. I was in the far right lane and when the wheel came off the hub started digging into the pavement and it started pulling me over into the far left lane of this 5-lane freeway. I fought the wheel to keep it from pulling me over, but I couldn’t stop it. I looked in my side view mirror, a large simi truck (18 wheeler) was about 10 feet behind me in the lane next to me that I was being pulled into. He slammed on his brakes to keep from hitting me and I could see his tires smoking. He came within just a couple of feet from running over me!! It was an absolute miracle that I wasn’t killed!!!! But for the Grace of God I go!! The car was taken over to the mechanic who normally worked on the car and after looking at how the wheel had been tampered with he said: “you should have been dead already”! We contacted the FBI to investigate and they advised me to not live by myself anymore, so I started having some of the road crew live with me whenever we were in L. A. This was only ONE of MANY incidences that happened…. there were many more!!! David Coverdale came by the studio one day. We were talking about all the insanity that was going on around us and he asked me, “how are handling all of this”? I said well, when I wake up in the morning I don’t feel bad – but – I don’t feel good either! He said, “well that’s pressure son”! I said, “is this what that feels like”? I used to make fun of guys that talked about all the pressure that they were under. I used to say, “they’re doing what they want to do in life so how bad can it really be”? I found out the hard way that’s there’s different kinds of pressure!! By the time we had finished the “Inside the Electric Circus” album all of this had started to turn me into a recluse. During the tour of that record, several times entire venues would have to be cleared before we came on stage because of bomb scares. That means, ALL the people in the venue were forced to leave, and after the venue was searched then they were allowed back in. It would take about an hour each time. It was happening everywhere. Our security later told us that the ONLY place that we did not get a bomb scare on that tour was the last night of that tour at Long Beach Arena in California. We were on tour with Maiden in the fall of 86’ and we were in Lisbon. We had a day off and stayed in a little seaside village right on the Atlantic Ocean. It was great! We’d be someplace where NOBODY would know who we were…at least for one day. I had gone to lunch with one of our security people and as we were walking back to the hotel we turned down a narrow cobble stone street. It was really cool, like something out of an old movie. I turned the corner and there was a small shop with a large glass window. It was a small record shop. In the window was a 2 times life size poster of the front cover of the “Circus” album. I just stood there and looked at it and felt like someone kicked me in my stomach. It became clear at that moment, I was trying to run away from all this insanity and there was now NOWHERE I could run to get away from it!!!! During the U. S. tour we were in an Arena in Toledo, Ohio. Looking back, subconsciously, I was getting fed up with everything that had happened and what we had become as a result of it. We were in the dressing room, getting ready to go on stage. The guys were hyped up to do a show, as we always were. I was sitting at the makeup mirror and I could see everybody behind me, rushing around getting ready for the show. I just sat there watching and said, “are we going to continue to be this “Circus” we’ve created, or are we going to do something of REAL MUSICAL MERIT!!! I could see the looks of horror on their faces. They were thinking, “oh no, it’s all over, he’s finally lost it”!!! They were correct!!! We finished the rest of the tour, but when it was over, I had some real soul searching I had to do about the musical direction this Band was going, but also the idea of “what in the world had just happened to me”!! Twice in this story a mirror played an important role. In a later work, I would again write about a mirror!! But never again would I write the same. Never again would I be the same. The early stages of the Band were finished. It was over…. I had seen way Too Much!!!
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 14:49:37 +0000